Category Archives: Kasalis News

Post navigation

We recently hosted an office party to mark the 5th anniversary of the founding of Kasalis.In our celebratory presentation, we reminisced about both the good times and the struggle to get a start-up off the ground and running.It has been a rollercoaster for these five years: overall, very exciting, but not without its ups and downs.

In 2012, we released our first products and were able to shake hands with our first customer. Soon we gained distributors and saw market growth. When 2014 rolled around, our numbers were growing so swiftly that we had to move to an office triple the size of our old one. We worked hard, traveled a great deal, and in 2015, our company was acquired by Jabil Circuit. We are now proudly a part of their Jabil Optics division.

Since then, we have kept busy, launching our Pixid 500 systems in 2016 and moving, yet again, to a bigger, more secure office. Now that we are finally settled in, we have time to celebrate! We are looking at a future with growth in some exciting markets, such as augmented reality, gesture recognition, and self-driving vehicles.So…cheers to five years of rigorous innovation and collaboration at Kasalis.Here’s to the next five and beyond, and a big thanks to our customers and partners for a great start.

We are pleased to announce that Kasalis has officially moved to a significantly larger office; our new world headquarters address is 11 North Ave in Burlington, Massachusetts. The move was made necessary by our expanding sales and security requirements.

Our new office space more than doubles our square footage and includes a collaborative work environment, six conference rooms, a clean room, manufacturing floor, and high security spaces featuring several integrated measures to keep customer information and products absolutely private.

In keeping with our drive to produce the best products possible, we have created a layout and atmosphere that is conducive to interaction, collaboration, and inspiration. Our modern workstations and furniture speak to our culture of thinking about how best to solve the challenges of the future. We are just settling in and making this our home, enjoying some cool spaces and a new ping pong table.

Share this post:

Our technologies and products are constantly evolving, so it was just about time we updated our website to reflect our latest and greatest offerings. Kasalis has been working hard on its new alignment systems and software, which are now available and profiled on the updated website at www.kasalis.com. Most notably, we have a new model in production, the Pixid 500, which is a high volume, automated active alignment system that offers a higher UPH for narrow FOV optics.

There will be more updates to the website and blog shortly, as we are busily designing a new office space. The excitement in the office is building for our big move to a new, customized, and larger office. Sales of the Pixid 500, in addition to our signature Pixid 300, are driving growth and increasing technical requirements. We will be incorporating special features into the new office space to accommodate our customers and our newest technologies. Stay tuned.

And please, in the meantime, don’t forget to check out our latest at www.kasalis.com.

Last year, Kasalis officially became a part of Jabil Optics. Our team here at Kasalis is eagerly looking forward to pursuing exciting opportunities as part of this larger organization, but will continue to operate independently. Kasalis can now offer customers access to a much wider array of design and manufacturing services in conjunction with our own active alignment equipment and related customer service.

As part of the Jabil Optics team, Kasalis provides in-depth knowledge of optical system alignment technologies and is now integrated into a full-service operation, allowing for one-stop solutions from innovative design all the way through precision mass production.

So, what is on the cool technology docket for 2016? Some exciting new products will be coming onto the market, many of which will include connectivity and embedded cameras, ready for connecting to the internet of things (IoT). We are thrilled that cameras are becoming more prevalent, and indeed, significant growth is projected in the compact camera module (CCM) market. The demand for thinner devices and higher quality cameras, as well as the now-essential automotive camera, are driving the market.

According to a new report by Yole Developpment (Lyon, France), the compact camera module market is likely to more than double by 2020, reaching $51 billion. Currently, mobile phone cameras account for 73% of the market. The automotive camera market is swiftly growing and will soon take over as second most prevalent in the market, expected to grow at a CAGR of 36%, and should reach $7.9B by 2020.

What else is driving growth? New technology shifts. In burgeoning areas such as 3D, computational, motion, and infrared cameras, multiple sensors, projectors, and others, high quality optics are required. Due to these shifts, the camera module will ultimately become the go-to product for multi-sensing.

Finally, in a boon to Kasalis’ area of the market, the assembly portion of the industry, Yole projected a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 20% (image below). That’s great news, and we hope to embrace and evolve with these burgeoning shifts toward multi-sensing technologies throughout the next five years and beyond.

Kasalis has always operated with efficiency and purpose, but in recent months, has been implementing a continuous improvement plan using Lean and Six Sigma principles. Now that the company is growing and expanding its operations significantly, the team is dedicating itself to scaling up gracefully, using insightful planning, organizing, and operating tools.

Among other things, we have adopted the 5S Strategy on our manufacturing floor: sort, set, shine, standardize, and sustain. This system is intended to streamline our manufacturing process by reducing wasted time and maintaining a highly organized environment with consistent, quality-driven operational results. The goal is to optimize our camera module assembly and other manufacturing operations.

Kasalis is committed to delivering the highest quality products, services, and customer support processes in the industry. Our ultimate goal is to create and maintain a workforce of analytical people, in which everyone is focused on continually driving improvements in quality, delivery and cost. The company puts emphasis on innovative thinking and an open, collaborative environment. To learn more, see the new Lean Manufacturing page on the Kasalis website.

Our camera module alignment equipment operations are expanding – Kasalis has happily moved to a spacious new office that artfully reflects its innovative spirit. The new space, designed with a creative, industrial edge to foster a highly inspired work environment, is just down the street from our old digs. We are now at 37 North Ave, and are thrilled to be offering our customers significantly increased capacity and technical support.

We are very pleased to occupy a space that fully reflects our company culture, with interesting angles, bold pops of color, and modern photographic panels. Through careful planning and design, we have created an office that will see us through to the next level of production of our Pixid active alignment systems. With a huge cleanroom, bright offices, and ample meeting spaces, this office is an ideal match for our needs.

The hallway from our offices to the clean room.

Kasalis expects further growth in 2014 and looks forward to filling up the open spaces in our new worldwide headquarters building. Here, in our new home, our current and future employees will contribute to our groundbreaking products, strategic approach, and skillful technical assembly.

Kasalis is buzzing with talk of moving to our new office, which is currently being renovated to suit camera module alignment equipment manufacturing and our growing number of employees. Crowding into the current office has become a necessity, to the point of putting desks in the printer room, so everyone is thrilled that we’ll soon have a new, and much bigger, office.

Our interior design team is developing some cutting-edge features that will reflect the innovative and industrial feeling we want in the office. There will be clear acrylic photo panels, colorful accents, and unique light fixtures to warm up the rooms.

The new office space includes an open work area with natural light, new clean room, reception area, and plenty of offices that will house our management team and employees. The space also includes a kitchen with ample eating space, two large conference rooms, and additional meeting areas throughout.

Moving day should happen sometime in April, so we will post an announcement, photos, and our new address when it’s ready.

Will gesture recognition transform our mobile phone, tv, and computer experiences? Certainly leading companies in the space, such as PrimeSense and EyeSight Mobile Technologies, believe so. Technology-savvy consumers may see this giant wave of innovations coming: gesture recognition, à la tv drama NCIS, whose cutting-edge video screen walls allow people to grab and expand files almost physically with their hands, is likely coming to a device near you, bringing with it an endless array of gesture-controlled apps and games.

The latest news is that app developers are beginning to consider transforming their apps with a new user interface – one that uses gesture control instead of the touchscreen, much like that found in the Wii or Kinect gaming systems, but more advanced. If new phones come with a gesture mode, then what’s next for automotive dashboard controls, kitchen appliances, and light switches?

An amazing array of technologies are possible with this technology, but given that even a touchscreen can be accidentally touched the wrong way, very careful thought must be given to the gestures that are used to control these devices. One wouldn’t want to walk by the television swinging his arms, and by doing so accidentally trigger a pay-per-view movie – this is referred to as “noise” by industry professionals. The goal is to have a system that recognizes the difference between noise and a real gesture. If you cannot scratch your chin in front of these cameras, customers will not be pleased.

Hopefully, given the new graphic acceleration being used in the latest gesture recognition technology, greater precision will be in place for mass market applications. According to this article in CNET, the next round of shipments from Lenovo, Toshiba, and Philips will include products with the latest gesture recognition technology from EyeSight built in. Only time will tell if it truly catches on, whether people are willing to switch to a new type of control pad, and what are truly the biggest challenges in this space.

Interest in the Pixid camera module alignment and assembly systems has fueled major growth at Kasalis. Here is a Pixid 300 about to be shipped out (foreground) with a fully assembled one in the background.

Excitement is building here at Kasalis, as we take on more employees and prepare to move our global headquarters to a new location (just down the street) in Burlington, Massachusetts.

Our camera module alignment and assembly systems have met with enthusiasm from manufacturers both abroad and in the U.S., accelerating growth for 2014. Our focus is on providing responsive staff and innovative products to customers, thereby supporting and enhancing the industries we serve.

Kasalis will remain in the Northwest Park technology area of Burlington. Our new office and clean room facility is nearly triple the size of our current office and is scheduled to be completed in March 2014. Click here for the official release.